The Commission is stepping up its efforts to counter disinformation in the run-up to the May 2019 election. After a communication on online disinformation in April, it published an Action Plan on Wednesday 5 December presenting a "coordinated approach between the EU institutions and in cooperation with the Member States".
Disinformation is "false or misleading information, which is created, presented and disseminated for economic purposes or to intentionally mislead the public, and may cause public harm”. The European External Action Service (EEAS) considers that disinformation from the Russian Federation is the greatest threat to the EU. Between 2015 and 2018, its East Stratcom working group identified and addressed more than 4,500 cases of disinformation from the Kremlin. These cases concerned several elections and referendums in the EU. In addition, the disinformation campaigns related to the war in Syria, the destruction of the MH-17 aircraft in eastern Ukraine and the use of chemical weapons in the Salisbury attack have been well documented, notes the Commission, which therefore calls for action in view of the 2019 European Parliament elections, bearing in mind that more than 50 presidential, national or local/regional elections will be held in the Member States by 2020.
Rapid Alert System
The 14-page communication aims to: (1) improve the capacities of EU institutions to detect, analyse and disclose disinformation; (2) strengthen coordinated and joint responses to disinformation; (3) mobilise the private sector to combat disinformation; (4) raise awareness and empower citizens’ resilience.
One of the key measures is the creation, by March 2019, of a Rapid Alert System involving national contact points designated by Member States (ideally located within strategic communication services). This system would be based solely on open source and unclassified information. It will focus exclusively on coordinated attempts by foreign players to manipulate a free and open debate.
Code of Practice
The Communication also specifies how the Commission will assess the Code of Practice on online disinformation (see EUROPE 12118). It states that it will publish an update of the measures taken by Google, Facebook, Mozilla and Twitter in January 2019 and will closely and continuously monitor the implementation of the Code of Practice. It will carry out a global evaluation of the code at the end of its first 12-month implementation period. "If the implementation and impact of the code of good practice were not to be satisfactory, the Commission could propose new measures, particularly regulatory ones," it said. When asked at a press conference about his confidence in Facebook, Security Commissioner Julian King replied: "No one, let alone the private sector, is asked to judge whether or not information is true. What we are saying is that we can shed light on the source of this information. Benchmarks for transparency can be established, which are lacking in some areas. We want to see rapid progress towards more transparency".
Other measures
Among other measures, the Commission proposes to strengthen the teams of the European External Action Service operating in this field, notably in terms of staff and data analysis tools. It also intends to double the EEAS strategic communication budget (to reach €5 million in 2019). To consult the Action Plan: https://bit.ly/2EeYiHx. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)